Donald L Wilson
SGT (T) U.S. Army
World War II
Donald L. Wilson was born on April 10, 1917, in Brandon, IA and died September 14, 2001. He graduated from Brandon High School in 1934. He served in the US Field Artillery from 1934 to 1938 in Des Moines, IA and the Hawaiian Islands. Upon discharge, he graduated from the Cedar Rapids Barber College and was employed by Lucky’s Barber Shop in Iowa City until World War II began. He then enlisted in the US Army Air Corps and spent four years in a B-24 bomber squadron in the South Pacific. He was discharged as a technical sergeant in 1945.
In 1948, Wilson was appointed Johnson County’s chief deputy sheriff and served in that capacity for 16 years. In 1964 he was employed by the University of Iowa’s Security Department from which he retired in 1979 as a sergeant detective. He attended the International Arson Investigation School at Purdue University, the John E. Reid and Associates School of Criminal Interrogation in Chicago, the School of Photography at Northwest Missouri State College in Kirksville, MO, and many peace officer’s classes at the University of Iowa.
Donald was a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, the Iowa Association of Chiefs of Police and Peace Officers, a 60-year member of the American Legion Roy L. Chopek Walter Ott Post 17, and the Izaak Walton League where he was awarded the Judge John W. Tobin National Award of Outstanding Devotion to the Johnson County Chapter.
Wilson was a master woodworker, making custom furniture and restoring antique furniture. Don truly loved hunting, fishing and being outdoors.
His family includes his wife Dorothy (White) of over 61 years, two sons, Mark and Jack, a daughter, Jill, and three grandchildren Jason Wilson, Alissa (Hansel) Wilson, and Brandon Davis.
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